Credit: The Associated Press

Texas head coach Rick Barnes directs his team during a practice session.

MILWAUKEE — When Rick Barnes took over at Providence, he heard the same thing over and over again. It was uniform praise for a young graduate assistant named Herb Sendek, and the hope that he would remain on the basketball staff with the Friars.

Barnes quickly saw what everyone was talking about.

"He literally was in the office 16, 18 hours a day," Barnes recalled Wednesday. "He was very thorough, as you can imagine. Everyone loved him on campus."